Refresh your creativity – change up the usual

Photo by Zack Whitehouse, © 2011

Summer 2010, Burlington, Vermont.  I handed my camera over to my then 15-year old nephew Zack and said “Shoot whatever you want.”

I’ve been doing this for years, and love seeing the results. I think he has a natural photographer’s eye, plus it’s fun seeing a familiar place through another photographer’s eyes.

I made a CD for Zack of his images, and it got lost, then found, then I moved, lost, found…you get the picture. It never made it to the mailbox, or into my suitcase when I traveled to Vermont.

So finally, this Christmas I decided it was ridiculous that he hadn’t even seen what he had shot – so I made a new CD. I  also had fun making a short slideshow from images that I selected. I wanted to show Zack how grouping photos and putting music to them can provide context, interest, and also demonstrate the strength and theme of his vision.

I also enjoyed giving Zack that affirming experience of seeing images in a more “professional” format, rather than just posted on a photo sharing website.

While making the slideshow, I remembered how much I love sequencing images, telling a visual story, and matching music to the flow. It was much more fun than just loading a bunch of images onto a CD, and gave me more creative ideas for my own work along the way.

So just a little reminder to all that changing up the way you share photos, or work with them, can give you a whole new energy for shooting and sharing, and can spark that creativity again. Working with another person’s images also frees up some of your own self-judgment, and can help you be more playful!

Thanks, Zack, for your fine work and for letting me share this! I hope you continue to expand your creativity –

Here’s the slideshow – a short 2 minutes –

Zack Whitehouse, Photographer – Burlington, VT 2010

Notes:

* What did I use? After fooling with various software on my Mac, I ended up using Lightroom 3, which was the simplest for me.

* Why this image? There are actually two in the slideshow (look for them!).  The first is three teens walking along;  the second is this image, where the girl in the pink top broke into a little dance. Zack nailed it. Love that –